Jamaal Bowman, a New York congressman whose committee assignments include the House Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Human Services, will be the next guest speaker at Cal State San Bernardino’s series, Conversations on Race and Policing.

The program, free and open to the public, will take place at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 1, on Zoom. It can be accessed from a PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android at https://tinyurl.com/csusb-race-policing. 

Jamaal Bowman
Jamaal Bowman

Bowman is a Democrat who represents New York’s 16th Congressional District consisting of New York City’s northern suburbs that include Yonkers and White Plains. Last spring, he found himself in a dispute with U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Green (R-Ga.), demanding that she apologize to him for making statements employing historically “racist tropes” after the two exchanged words outside the Capitol. Most recently, he was involved in an incident in which a fire alarm was pulled just prior to a House vote on a government spending bill.

Conversations on Race and Policing began after the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, and its aftermath. It was the death of Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer, that sparked widespread protests, calls for reform and revamping of the nation’s policing system, difficult and hard conversations on race and racism – and gave birth to Cal State San Bernardino’s Conversations on Race and Policing, also known as CoRP.

In subsequent court cases, three other former Minneapolis police officers implicated in Floyd’s death were given prison sentences.

The series has featured scholars, journalists, law enforcement officers, lawyers, activists, artists, educators, administrators and others from throughout the nation who shared their experience and expertise on issues related to race and policing.

More than 90 forums have taken place, and video recordings of the sessions are posted online on the Conversations on Race and Policing Lecture Series Archive. 

The guest presenters in the upcoming programs of Conversations on Race and Policing, each at 1 p.m. on Wednesdays, include:

  • Nov. 8: Ronnie Dunn, executive director of diversity and associate professor of urban studies, Cleveland State University, whose research interest includes urban and social policy, racial profiling, racial inequality, the criminal justice system and issues affecting children and families living in urban areas, minority populations and the urban poor.
  • Nov. 15: Joanna Schwartz, UCLA professor of law, faculty director of the David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy and author of “Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable.”
  • Nov. 29, Matthew Guarigla, affiliated scholar at the Institute of Criminal Justice at University of California, Hastings School of Law, and the author of “Police and the Empire City: Race and the Origins of Modern Policing in New York.”

The series is organized by Matt Patino (CSUSB MA candidate); CSUSB faculty members Mary Texeira (sociology) and Jeremy Murray (history); Robie Madrigal, public affairs/communication specialist for the CSUSB John M. Pfau Library; Michael German, fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice; and community member Stan Futch, president of the Westside Action Group.

For more information, contact Robie Madrigal at rmadriga@csusb.edu or Jeremy Murray at jmurray@csusb.edu.

Also visit the Conversations on Race and Policing webpage.